A History of Sanskrit Literature c11.s6.1

c11.s6.1

High as Indian opinion ranks the *Meghadūta*, which won also the commendation of Goethe,³ to modern taste the *Kumārasambhava*⁴ appeals more deeply by reason of its richer variety, the brilliance of its fancy, and the greater warmth of its feeling. The *Meghadūta* has, with reason, been ascribed the merit of approaching more closely than any other Indian poem to the rank of an elegy; the *Kumārasambhava* varies from the loveliness of the spring and the delights of married love to the utter desolation induced by the death of the beloved. The subject is unquestionably a daring one, the events which bring about the marriage of the highest god Çiva to Umā and the birth of Skanda, the war god, and Ānandavardhana⁵ tells us that there were critics who deemed it wrong to depict the amour of two deities. Still less permissible does the subject naturally appear to modern taste, unless we realize that as in the *Meghadūta* we must see the poet's power of suggestion; the wedlock of Çiva and Umā is no mere sport, no episode of light love such as that of Zeus with Danae or many another. From this union springs a power destined to perform the slaying of the demon Tāraka, who menaces the world with destruction; moreover, their nuptials and their love serve as the prototype for human marriage and human love, and sanctify with divine precedent the forces which make the home and carry on the race of men.